


This Decade is the Age of Rehashing

by daikenkai



Series: SP Drabble Bomb [4]
Category: South Park
Genre: Angst but hopeful, Gen, Mental Illness, South Park Drabble Bomb, introspective, mentions of the Stotches, nonbinary!Butters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 04:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daikenkai/pseuds/daikenkai
Summary: Ten years can really change a person.Decade for the May 2018 Drabble Bomb!





	This Decade is the Age of Rehashing

**Author's Note:**

> **Decade**.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~Just like with all of my db pieces, this too can count as two~~

Kenny McCormick disappeared. A lot, but he always seemed to come back. Butters (Leo now) wasn’t sure what went wrong between them but ten years ago things were completely different than they were now.

Ten years ago (and beyond) Leo didn’t know who they were. They didn’t know it was okay and even a bit normal to want to kiss Bebe and Stan. They didn’t even know there was a term for how they felt until Kenny asked them what pronouns they preferred. What? Leo’s eyes had bugged out of their head and it was that night that Kenny calmly explained the term ‘nonbinary’ and about the use of pronouns. He was always kind and reassuring with Leo and never treated them like they were stupid. Leo appreciated that, maybe even fell in love with that. Maybe it was that naivete that got them in trouble.

Ten years ago Leo and Kenny were madly in love. They were inseparable: the couple everyone aspired to be. Leo had learned to be more proactive in standing up for himself, had loosened up after all the parties they attended and through Kenny’s influence maybe even became more of a badperson. Kenny always said it was hot and Leo couldn’t believe that he, Butters then, was what Kenny desired. Kenny McCormick who could have anyone in the entire world, had Butters and wanted them. And loved them.

Seven years ago Leo’s dad left their mom. Everyone saw it coming but Linda was a mess and Leo had to help her pick up the pieces. Knowing what she knew about Stephen didn’t make it any easier for Linda. If anything, it was harder, knowing the inevitable was on the brink at any given moment. Kenny always told Leo to stand his ground but he had to detransition around his mother; having to explain being nonbinary was not something she could have handled in her mental state. Maybe that was when it fell apart; Leo didn’t know. Everything seemed to change so fast.

Five years ago Kenny disappeared. It had happened before but never for this long. The first time it was a matter of hours; the second was four days; the countless times after that never made Leo worry because Kenny always came back. After a month, Leo assumed the worst. No one else in the town seemed to understand Leo’s distress because they didn’t remember, but Leo did. Leo always remembered. They’d started seeing a psychiatrist and when they described Kenny the doctor told them they were showing signs of schizophrenia, that this ‘Kenny’ didn’t exist. A figment of their imagination. “That’s why you’re the only one who remembers.”

Three years ago, after saving every penny they had, Leo put themself through a culinary program (emphasis on desserts) with the help of their aunt. Leo had been sick with worry over Kenny’s disappearance and had spent many a phonecall with their aunt over the matter. They got to talking about what Leo wanted to do for themself, without Kenny, and the two of them decided they’d give baking and decorating a try. They were a natural and spent every moment at school to distract themself from the disappearance. The internship they were required sent them to a fancy new bakery in Denver where they worked long hours but it was all worth it: they had stopped thinking about Kenny, they were successful, they hadn’t spoken to their dad, and they weren’t living at home. They were stable.

Ten years ago Leo was a different person.

Today, Kenny resurfaces in Denver.

**Author's Note:**

> come yell with me at [tumblr](http://xigbarf.tumblr.com)!


End file.
